WEBVTT IN 2015.LOCAL LEADERS SAY IT HAS RISENSINCE THEN.THE WHITE HOUSE COUNSELESTIMATES THAT IN 20 -- THAT IN2015, THE OPIOID CRISIS COSTMORE THAN $500 BILLION.>> IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, IT WAS JUSTBEGINNING TO GET STARTED.SIOBHAN: CRITICS SAY THEPRESIDENT DID NOT GO F ENOUGHTO FREE UP ADDITIONAL MONEY WHENHE DECLARED THE CRISIS A HEALTHEMERGENCY.>> WE STILL DO NOT HAVE THERESOURCES FROM THE FEDERALGOVERNMENT THAT WE NEED TO HELPTURN THE TIDE.SIOBHAN: MAGGIE HASSAN IS ONE OFMANY CALLING ON THE PRESIDENTAND CONGRESS TO INVEST $45BILLION TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE.SHE SAYS IT REALLY SHOULD THEHUNDREDS OF MILLIONS -- HUNDREDSOF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS.THERE ARE CRIMINAL JUSTICE COSTSAND LOST PRODUCTIVITY.CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS, ASSOCIATEDWITH ADDICTION, IS ONE OF THEMOST EXPENSIVE AREAS TO COVER.>> IT IS A HUGE HURDLE.SIOBHAN: THE REGIONAL DIRECTORFOR AMERICAN MEDICAL RESPONSESAYS HE IS HONORED THE PRESIDENTACKNOWLEDGED THE SAFE STATIONPROGRAM WHAT -- BUT WOULD LIKETO SEE FEDERAL FUNDING FOR IT.>> WE STARTED THE INITIATIVE ONOUR OWN IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.SIOBHAN: HE SAYS SAFE STATIONSHAS THE NUMBERS TO BACK IT ALLOUT.A 24 PERCENT DECREASE INOVERDOSES IN NASHUA AND A 40%

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie criticized medical schools Tuesday while talking to legislators at The Johns Hopkins Hospital about the opioid epidemic.

Christie, who has served as the head of the president’s opioid commission, said, broadly speaking, that in medical schools “in every state,” the country is not educating future doctors, nurses and dentists on the dangers of these drugs.

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“Our medical community is not educated enough at this time on this issue across the country,” Christie said.

Christie spoke to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at the hospital, the primary teaching hospital of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Karin Neufeld, clinical director of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, says in a statement that the addiction epidemic has spread from Baltimore to the suburbs but that “our approach to teaching our medical students has not changed.”

The medical school has focused on sensitizing students to the prevalence and burden of substance use disorders while recognizing state-of-the-art approaches and treatments for helping patients.

The committee's chairman, U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, later said that the vast majority of physicians have incredibly positive intentions and are well trained and well educated. But he also said there's a group of doctors with some problems.

Christie’s commission unveiled 56 recommendations in a Nov. 1 report. Among the suggestions, the group said that adequate resources are needed to recruit and increase the number of addiction-trained psychiatrists and other physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers and other health care workers.

“This is a drug epidemic that did not start on the corners of Baltimore or the corners of my hometown,” he said Monday. “They started in doctors’ offices and in hospitals across this nation.”

Dr. Patrice Harris, chairwoman of the American Medical Association’s Opioid Task Force, says that the association agrees that physicians must continue to take leadership roles in the effort to defeat this epidemic. The association’s task force has also encouraged physicians to increase their education while highlighting best practices in pain treatment.

Recently, Massachusetts’s four commonwealth medical schools and state officials and others recognized key areas for medical programs to help redefine how to treat pain and substance use disorder. State and private medical heads noted that the urgency of the public health crisis demanded a quick and decisive response.

Virtually every medical school across the country already integrates coursework on substance use and pain, said Tannaz Rasouli, senior director of public policy and strategy outreach of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Medical schools are actively enhancing that existing content in response to the opioid epidemic, she said.

Meanwhile, Christie also said that children need to be taught about the issue when they’re in middle school.

“It’s frightening to me as a father to think that my 11- and 12-year-old daughter or son needs to be spoken to about this issue in stark terms,” he said. “But they do.”